"In the far northeast corner of Angmar, the Angmarim in their desperation have opened a long-sealed door and begun mining for obsidian and iron in a place simply known as The Rift. They have uncovered long since forgotten tales and evils. The Rangers of Gath Forthnír, led by the Elf-lord Iorelen, are now keeping tabs on this expedition and need your help!"

"Within the Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu, Angmar mines for the ore they need to arm their legions. In their search for iron, they have uncovered the home of the Eldgang, as well as a hidden evil, ancient beyond knowledge...."

Location

During the First Age, a mighty city once stood. Eventually, it fell into ruin, and was lost until the Fire-giants (or Eldgang as they call themselves) found and later inhabited this underground lair. It was known in the Black Speech as the Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu.

The entrance is located in the far north-east corner of Angmar, beyond the Gate of Gath Uior [9.2N, 19.6W]. There is a friendly ranger outpost with a campfire for Hunters called Iorelen's Camp[10.8N, 15.5W] a little to the south-west of the entrance.

Mobs

Troll-keeper and Cave-troll

The Cave-troll has two buffs on him while the Troll-keeper lives, Wild Rage and Master's Command, the former making his attacks cause greater damage, and the latter causing him to attack targets at random. It is believed that the Troll-keeper also heals the Troll. For these reasons, the Troll-keeper should always be taken down first. Keep the Troll near the Keeper or he will begin to make more powerful attacks.

Slave-master, Hillmen Slave and four Hillmen Workers

Crowd-control the Hillmen Slave as soon as possible. She will heal the mobs near her with Blood Gift and uses Blood Pact Protection on the Slave-master/Workers if she isn't incapacitated. The Slave-master should be either taken down first or crowd-controlled by a second Lore-master. He can cast an Aura of Command buff, so Champions will need to use Clobber as much as possible to interrupt him when he is casting. If he manages to cast the buff and there are still Workers around, the raid will most likely wipe.

A good strategy is to mezz the Slave and cast a root on the Workers. A second Lore-master will then mezz the Slave-master, resulting in only a few Workers coming running. If the Slave-master mezz fails or is not available, take him down first while using AoE attacks on the Workers, then take the Slave down last.

Alternately, mesmerize the Slave Master, and have everyone gather as closely as possible on the Slave and focus all fire on her. The Hillmen Guard will all then be in close enough proximity to receive the Blood Pact damage that the Slave absorbs. Finish the Slave once the Guards are down, then finish with the Slave Master. Very fast and effective!

Slave-master and six Pale-folk Miners

The pull includes a Slave-master and six Pale-folk Miners, with the occasional two Hillmen Guards. Tank or crowd-control the Slave-master while taking down the Miners and Hillmen Guards. Deal with the Slave-master last.

Summoner and Fire-worms

Take down the summoner first, since he will keep summoning more Fire-worms. Either crowd-control or AoE the Fire-worms in the meantime.

Alternately, keep the summoner mesmerized, and stay on one person's target for the worms.

Fumarole, Searing Úrfon and Ghâshfra adds

Take care when proceeding onto the islands in the lava. Stay on the right-side of the path to avoid two of the Fumaroles. When a Fumarole pops up, focus all DPS on taking it down. A few Searing Úrfon may spawn while the Fumarole is up, but this can be significantly reduced or even entirely prevented by Champions using Clobber (Fumaroles are immune to Burglar's Addle). The Úrfon deal about 150 Fire damage with their attack, and reflect an equal amount of damage received back at their attackers, making them difficult to defeat. Good ways to deal with them are to either single-target DPS them down or ignore them, as they will not attack and de-spawn after about 30 seconds if they are not attacked. Ghâshfra orcs will come running in in clusters of three. Mezz the ranged orcs while the current Fumarole is active, then take the orcs down with ranged damage or line-of-sight them in close so that more Fumaroles aren't spawned before the raid is ready.

When fighting the Fumarole before the ramp, have someone run forward and evoke the Everseer's script. This will stop the Orc-adds from coming.

Walkthrough

Follow the procedures above to deal with the trash mobs. There will be quite a few before getting to the friendly giant.

Asmólf the friendly giant

Pull the mobs around Asmólf in small groups to make things easier. Once all mobs around him are defeated, have the raid stand on the wall opposite of him, with one player moving up to Asmólf to trigger the event. The giant will start talking, and the player should head back to the raid party. Several groups of mobs will attack Asmólf, but don't get involved since he can take care of them himself and more waves keep spawning.

From the cave with the giant, you will see ramps leading up to the first two bosses on either side of the cave. Head up the east ramp first, clearing trash pulls until reaching Barz. Make sure the entire room is cleared of mobs, since additional aggro on Barz could cause a wipe.

Now proceed to clear back to and past the west ramp. Here you will find and must defeat Zurm.

Once they are both dealt with, head back to Asmólf, who will open up a portal behind him to the next area.

Note: You can defeat Barz & Zurm in either order; the second gains a special ability. However Barz is more difficult than Zurm, and his special ability is worse, so it is recommended to defeat Barz first and Zurm second.

Three giants and a bartering vendor

You will run into these giants just beyond the portal that Asmólf opened up. They might be in combat with a group of Ghâshfra Butchers, in which case you can help them out a little if you want. Just make sure that the Butchers remain aggro'd on the giants, who can easily handle them. Once they are down, grab all the quests from the giants and exchange obsidian rocks for Rift Coins. Soon another wave of Butchers will come running. Do not engage them in battle; instead let the giants take care of them.

About 6 minutes after the last Butcher spawn, another will come running. They run right through the path you will be using to get to Frûz, so it is very important to time your pulls and fight out of their path when possible.

The pulls up to Frûz are either the Summoner and Fire-worms or a regular pull of Orcs. Defeat them or kite them back into the giants. It can be a bit faster to kite them, but also risky since you will need to run back and forth along the Butchers' path.

Once he is down, proceed through the tunnels until you get to Zogtark. Clear out the entire area of mobs before moving in on his Elder Drakes.

When Zogtark is defeated, head through the gate that the Elder Drakes guarded.

Fumarole islands

This can be a very tricky area. There are three islands with four Fumaroles on the first, one on the next and one on the last. Do not rush onto the islands. The trick is to stick in a tight group and move forward slowly until finding a Fumarole. Once you do, don't move. Lay as much damage as you can on it, and make sure that classes with interrupt abilities such as Clobber use them as much as possible. This will prevent Searing Urfons from spawning. Once the Fumarole is down, move slowly forwards until you find the next one and repeat the process. More information on dealing with the adds can be found in the Mobs section above.

Note: You can avoid some of the Fumaroles by staying to the right on each platform.

Note: It is no longer possible to run the raid through the lava.

After the Fumaroles you will encounter Narnûlubat. He is standing in front of the Ever-Seer, who leaves once the fight begins.

Pass through the gate portal after he is defeated, and you will enter a small area with a few trash mob pulls before you reach a gate. Opening the gate will start the Shadow-eater encounter, so make sure no one opens it before the raid is prepared.

Defeat them and head through another gate, which will bring you to a large arena. Head down into the pit to start the Thrâng encounter.

There are two more areas beyond Thrâng, and the first does not contain any mobs, so run on through. Upon entering the second you will encounter Glathlírel behind the pillar on the right, who will begin the Thaurlach encounter when someone approaches her.

Map

Loot

This 12 player raid instance features a set of unique boss-drop barter items that can be turned in for incomparable-quality class gear. One unique barter item exists for each of the weapons and armor pieces regardless of class, which means that all of the players will have to roll on the same barter items. Since each boss drops the same barter item(s) each time, some pieces of the set will be harder to obtain. For a complete list of bartering vendors and set pieces for the Rift, click here.

Lore

The folk of Middle-earth’s northern lands have long held the name of Angmar in dread, but in that fell kingdom are places that cause even the minions of Mordirith to tremble. At the feet of the Mountains of Angmar lies the terrible land of death and decay, Gath Uior. Even the Orcs and evil Men who gather there fear what lurks behind the great portal that leads under the mountains. It is said that ever-vigilant guards watch the gates, which were hewn long before the Witch-king first came to Angmar – not to keep enemies out, but to keep something in.

The Wise say that behind that portal is a passage into a place called, in the Black Speech of the Enemy, the “Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu.” Nûrz Ghâshu is little more than a legend among the Free Peoples of Eriador, but like all legends there is some grain of truth to it. Rumour tells of a breed of giants who dwell therein, as well as something far greater, far more terrifying. Whether these tales are true or not, Angmar is preparing to take the Rift and to unleash the great evil that might dwells there...